YCombinator started in 2005, and has been used to launch over 3000 startups, which were collectively valued at over $300 billion as of Jan’21. Some well-known ones include Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase, Instacart, Doordash, Dropbox and Reddit. How does YC make money? How much capital do they deploy annually? I was…

This post was waiting in the wings for a bit. Apt in hindsight. “Good ideas will always come back to you,” they say. “If it comes back, it’s yours. If not, it was never meant to be.” There’s some truth to that. This is the foundation of one of the…

We started Stonks with a simple mission — tear down the walls and democratize access to startup investing. We did 158 early-stage demo days last year, featuring over 1200 founders pitching live on the platform. But the average deal quality was disappointing (the benchmark is YC imo). Venture has a…

At Stonks, we’re focused on building the absolute best demo day experience in the world. We host nearly 200 demo days a year with partners like 500 Global, Techstars, Tachyon & others. …

**Spoiler Alert: This is the largest change to the Stonks platform since we started.** We started Stonks to democratize wealth creation, by letting anyone access VC-grade startup deal-flow. We opened up Demo Days to let investors anywhere access top-tier deals without being in Silicon Valley or exclusive, insider clubs.

At Stonks, we believe everyone should be able to invest in startups. Current SEC regulations state that only Accredited Investors may invest in Startups under Regulation D. Most founders and startup employees hear this and think — oh no, I’m not rich. I must not be accredited. …

Startup investing is limited to those who are accredited investors, per SEC rules. Deals cannot be discussed or shared publicly, unless the startup or a qualifying platform is verifying accreditation. This has historically been a significant burden for both startups and platforms. In 2021, the regulations were revised to make…

Much of blockchain/crypto is a solution looking for a problem. But some things are clearly working — DeFi yield farming, Inflation hedges, stablecoin ramps, cross-border payments, DAOs, and NFT speculation. In startup investing, we often hear of Angellist —that just raised a Series B from Tiger at a $4bn valuation. …

We’re a small team of 16 at Stonks. When I first heard about OKRs — the system famously used by Intel, Google and others to align teams and set goals — my reaction was “Oh, here’s yet another Biz-school management system that big companies use. We’re a small team. …